Driver Says He Couldn't Disengage A Confused Autopilot In Model X Crash

Just pull the damn plug!

I've never driven a Tesla, but this doesn't seem plausible. I would think hitting the brakes should disable any auto functionality. Reading the full article says the same thing. Sounds like operator error from here.

Uhh...all you have to do is step on the brake pedal to disengage autopilot. The system is hard-wired this way. Sounds like another case of head-up-ur-ass-itis or too busy texting or watching movies to pay attention to the road.

Look at what you wrote:"...hard WIRED..." and that wire goes to a black box and if the black box does not operate properly there would be no disengagement. With cars doing more and more "by wire" you will have more of these sorts of issues.

I had free trials with EAP but didn't like it too much. Not that it didn't work as intended, but it gave the user too much confidence which could lead to complacency and misuse. This case is an example of that - the driver used it in improper conditions (local highway with a lot of traffic lights) and was not alert enough to intervene. The claim that EAP didn't disengage was total BS. Crash data will prove him wrong.

Total BS, the driver F-ed up. You can easily overpower the steering wheel. Even if the system was applying max torque and AP never cancelled, you can still turn the wheel in the other direction without much effort. I've done it several times when I disagreed with the car's decision (in areas where I probably shouldn't be using AP like tight cloverleafs).

As rockereid mentioned there is also a brake bypass that overrides all accelerator input. It also works without AP, you cannot hit both the brake and accelerator at the same time and expect the car to move. In fact, the way to get the fastest launch is to put the brake down, floor the accelerator to pre-charge the motor(s), then lift up on the brake.

DUH...!!!! Shift into Neutral... DUH..!!!

@sanjosedriver...that is how it is supposed to work, but when everything is controlled by a computer things don't always work as they are supposed to.

Nothing can go wrong...go wrong...go wrong...